This Invention relates to a topping cutter for a cane harvester.
A cane harvester is normally provided with a topping cutter for the purpose of severing the leafy tops of cane stalks as the harvester advances, and before the stalks are cut at or near to ground level by base cutters and then chopped into billets which are elevated and discharged from the harvester. Such a topping cutter is usually of rotary type, and is capable of being adjustably raised and lowered as the harvester advances to suit the height of the cane being harvested. As the harvester will generally be driven in opposite directions for harvesting successive rows of cane, turning in the headlands, in order to reduce the travelling which would otherwise be necessary, it is desirable that the topping cutter should be capable of ejecting the severed tops to either one side or the other so that, whichever way the harvester is travelling, the tops will be thrown onto the area already harvested and not onto the standing cane.
The present invention has been devised with the general object of providing a cane harvester topping cutter which is particularly efficient and positive in action.